Monthly Archives: September 2011

I know how he shot himself

Posted on September 29, 2011 by Sean D. Sorrentino | 1 Comment

First dates are always nervous affairs. This one was almost a killer.

A man on a date accidentally shot himself in his SUV in a parking garage behind the Ruth’s Chris restaurant on Fairview Road Tuesday night, according to police.

Given that he was not charged with carrying a concealed weapon, we can pretty much assume that he has a valid NC CHP. So why was he screwing around with his gun in the parking deck behind Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse? Because North Carolina law requires him to.

Ruth’s Chris is a very high end steakhouse. I asked my wife what it costs to get a steak and she said that they were living proof of the old adage, if you have to ask, it’s too expensive. Ruth’s Chris serves alcohol. By NC law, no CHP holder may enter an establishment licensed to sell alcohol for on premises consumption. Yes, I know, the law is an ass. You can gorge yourself silly while Open Carrying at the Golden ~~Corral~~ Trough, but if you want to pay an arm and a leg for a nice steak dinner at Ruth’s Chris, you better take that gun off pardner.

So why was Mr. First Date Blues screwing around with his gun instead of leaving it in his holster where it belonged? Because the idiots who wrote our laws required him to. It’s time to pass HB111, Restaurant Carry.

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Posted in NC Politics

Repeal the Hughes Amendment

Posted on September 28, 2011 by Sean D. Sorrentino | Leave a comment

Did you know that machine guns aren’t really illegal? Not by Federal law at least. Your State might have a law against them, but most States allow them. There’s just one problem. During the wrangling for the Firearms Owners Protection Act in 1986, an amendment was offered to FOPA that banned the transfer of newly manufactured machine guns to civilians. That means that if a machine gun was manufactured in 1985, it’s legal for you to own, but if it was manufactured in 1987, it’s not. This limits the number of legally transferrable machineguns, and drives the prices sky high. Does that make any sense?

Here’s what you can do about it. Whitehouse.gov has a petition system set up. If you can get 150 people to sign the petition, it becomes “public” and everyone can see it. Once they get 5000 signatures, the Whitehouse has to make a public statement about it. Stephen at The Bluff has started a petition asking that the Hughes Amendment be repealed and the ATF books be re-opened to allow average citizens to purchase new machine guns.

Petition here,

While you are there, you might as well sign the petition for HR822, the National Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act. They have more than 1800 signatures already!

You have to register at Whitehouse.gov to get a sign in, but be sure to UNCHECK the “receive re-election propaganda BS from BO” box.

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Posted in National Politics

Guns in Parks, Havelock, NC edition

Posted on September 28, 2011 by Sean D. Sorrentino | Leave a comment

A quick link about the fallout from HB650 and local laws. I am working on a similar situation here in Garner, but the proposed ordinance is much more in line with the new State laws.

But Bessinger and Taylor differ on whether concealed handguns have a place in the Havelock Recreation Complex where the team practices and plays.

“I don’t think it’s a good idea to have concealed weapons at parks where there’s kids,” said Bessinger.

“I think that if you’ve got the permit, you should be able to carry it anywhere at all,” Taylor said. “If you pass the background check and go through the classes, I think so. I would be for it.”

Apparently Havelock is trying to get cute with the law. The law will allow localities to ban guns at pools, playgrounds, athletic fields, and athletic facilities, but not at parks in general, nor in the other parts of parks except for those named exceptions. For instance, just because there is a playground in a park, towns can’t ban carry in other parts of the park.

It would be just so much easier if they didn’t ban guns. It isn’t like the CHP holders are going to shoot the place up, nor are the criminals going to care about the stupid signs.

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Posted in NC Politics

Meanwhile in Rebecca Peters Paradise: I ain’t payin’ for no smokes edition

Posted on September 28, 2011 by Sean D. Sorrentino | Leave a comment

Apparently even after Australia radically restricted gun ownership, guns are still common in crimes.

Police say a bandit threatened an attendant with a gun in a store in Fitzgerald Road, Ardeer, about 2am, when asked to pay for a pack of cigarettes.

This seems so strange. Didn’t they tell us that if guns were banned, gun crime would stop? If it doesn’t stop the crime, what does it stop?

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Posted in Meanwhile in X paradise

Queen Bev loses her mind

Posted on September 28, 2011 by Sean D. Sorrentino | 2 Comments

Now I’ve been known to say some stupid things from time to time. But nothing like this,

“I think we ought to suspend, perhaps, elections for Congress for two years and just tell them we won’t hold it against them, whatever decisions they make, to just let them help this country recover,” Perdue said.

Let’s be clear. If there are no elections as the Constitution demands, then the government is illegitimate. I hate to say this so bluntly, but without elections, all we have left are bullets.

Bev is downplaying her statement, calling it a joke

“Come on…Gov. Perdue was obviously using hyperbole to highlight what we can all agree is a serious problem: Washington politicians who focus on their own election instead of what’s best for the people they serve.”

How do you joke about that? How exactly do you suggest, even as a joke, that the Constitution be suspended? The stakes cannot be higher. When the alternative to elections is shooting people who disagree with us, you can’t make a joke. So don’t try.

Here’s what’s interesting to me about the whole thing. Bev has to have future aspirations. She’s the Democrat Governor of a southern state. It is widely agreed that being a Governor is a big plus in the race for President. Being from the South is a big plus for Democrats in national elections. She’s a woman, a Governor, from the South. She’s got all the chances without any of the baggage of Hillary.

We all know that Bev is toast in 2012. She barely squeaked by against McCrory in 2008. The Obama wave washed her over the finish line. With Obama’s implosion, she’s dead in the water. But she could spend some time in a future administration, getting some needed “foreign policy” experience and run for president sometime. Except now she’s torpedoed that.

Ht: reader and Marine, Brian Callendar, and Anthony, both via email.

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Posted in NC Politics

Glenn Reynolds channels Elizabeth Warren

Posted on September 27, 2011 by Sean D. Sorrentino | 7 Comments

A meme is born. Here’s my entry.

Here’s where it started. (Corrected, Joel says he found it somewhere, he didn’t write it)

One more

And another

they appear to be collecting here.

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Posted in Sean gets Results

Nothing says stop invading my house like shooting at them (Video)

Posted on September 27, 2011 by Sean D. Sorrentino | 3 Comments

A young woman near Fayetteville took advantage of current North Carolina law and used deadly force to repel two yutes who were in the process of unlawfully and forcibly entering her home.

“It was ping, and the glass shattered,” she explained “So my first instinct was to run upstairs and protect myself, so I went upstairs, got my gun, and shot thru the window.”

The men were breaking through the back door so she fired twice through the window — down at the two men.

She’s not sure if she hit either of them, but they were standing outside the door when she opened fire. They fled the scene and ran toward Southview High School, which is a few hundred yards away from the apartment.

Current NC law says that you can presume that you are in danger of death or serious bodily injury if someone is in the process of forcibly and unlawfully entering your home. The current law does not allow you to presume the danger if the person is already inside your home. That means that North Carolina is one of the very few States where it is actually legal to shoot through your own door at a criminal trying to break in.

House Bill 650 will remedy that strange situation with our new Castle Bill. After December 1^st, you may presume that a person who is in your home, forcibly and unlawfully, is a deadly threat, and you may use deadly force against them.

Ht: Kahr40 at From the Barrel of a Gun

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Posted in Local stories, Play stupid games win stupid prizes

Guns cheap and easy in Sarah Brady Paradise

Posted on September 27, 2011 by Sean D. Sorrentino | Leave a comment

As reported in the Grauniad*, guns are cheap and easy to get in Sarah Brady Paradise

The gun shown here, a Webley, is up for sale in London for £150, one of hundreds of such weapons that are easily and cheaply available on the streets of the UK’s big cities, a Guardian investigation can reveal.

The variety of weapons on offer in Britain is extensive and includes machine guns and shotguns, as well as pistols and converted replicas. A source close to the trade in illegal weapons contacted by the Guardian listed a menu of firearms that are available on the streets of the capital.

“You can get a clean [unused] 9mm automatic for £1,500, a Glock for a couple of grand and you can even make an order for a couple of MAC-10s,” he said. “Or you can get a little sawn-off for £150. They’re easy enough to get hold of. You’ll find one in any poverty area, every estate in London, and it’s even easier in Manchester, where there are areas where the police don’t go.

What have we always said? When guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns. (Formerly Great) Britain is an island. For Grauniad* readers, that means it’s totally surrounded by water. The closest it gets to the main land of Europe is 21 miles between Dover and Calais. If you can’t secure an island from gun smuggling, what can you secure?

Gun control has failed. It doesn’t lower overall crime rates, and it doesn’t keep criminals from having guns. It just keeps the law abiding citizens subjects disarmed and helpless.

* See here for an explanation of the name Grauniad

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Posted in Meanwhile in X paradise

I swear by my pretty floral bonnet I will end you

Posted on September 27, 2011 by Sean D. Sorrentino | 1 Comment

I posted about a murder that happened last Wednesday, pointing out that murder victims are frequently criminals themselves. Well, it didn’t take long to identify the suspect in that killing, and there’s strange twist.

Roanoke Rapids police say a 29-year-old man sought in connection with two murders could be cross-dressing to elude arrest.

Well isn’t that special?

Suspect

Victim

You aren’t really surprised, are you?

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Posted in Felons Behaving Badly

Meanwhile in Rebecca Peters Paradise: Armed Bank Robbery edition

Posted on September 27, 2011 by Sean D. Sorrentino | 1 Comment

We already know how tough it is to get a gun legally in Australia. So if that’s the case, why do they still have gun crime? Isn’t that why gun control was instituted?

An armed bank robber who stole $27,000 before apologising as he fled has been jailed for more than six years.

(Convicted Robber), 22, took less than a minute to terrorise teller Meredith Hales, three colleagues and customers with a handgun and rob the National Australia Bank in Taylors Lakes. He apologised as he fled, and Ms Hales shouted back at him: “Don’t say f—ing sorry to me”.

I don’t understand. Wasn’t gun control supposed to stop gun crime? Or was it just to force the citizens to give up their means of self-defense?

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Posted in Meanwhile in X paradise